


Promises We Can't Keep

by vajallie



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: F/M, Follows Boruto time plot, Naruto isn't here, NejiTen Month, NejiTen Month 2019, One Shot, he's busy, two character deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 13:22:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18389273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vajallie/pseuds/vajallie
Summary: Tenten foresaw his death. She also foresaw her own too.





	Promises We Can't Keep

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Nejiten Month!  
> I've been thinking about this plot for quite a while and decided to jot it down at the last minute. I'm not too good with story writing so please read with that in mind!
> 
> Enjoy!

It is the calm before the storm. Tenten can feel an unpalpable fear erupt through her body. She called him here in the dead of the night to tell him and he is here already. In fact, he has been here for about fifteen minutes and they’ve been staring down at the village from the summit of the hills for these fifteen minutes. Her mind forces her to say it and her throat thrusts her to speak. _Just one more minute_. That is all that she asks. Just one more minute so that she can find the courage to tell him.

She takes one big breath and feels her lungs light up. A tingling sensation dances at the apex of her heart. Tenten turns to him, “Neji-”

“Remember all those times when I spent months on end trying to complete missions?”

Tenten’s breath hitches as he cut her off. _I do._ She didn’t reply at all.

“I just thought about it now,” he speaks to her but his focus was elsewhere. He still looked over the village, “why we’re so awkward with each other after a long separation.”

He turns his head in her direction, but as Tenten look, his eyes never came her way. His words confuse her because it has been quite a while since they’ve been separated through time. “Get straight to the point, I have something to tell you too.” All shinobi will move out to the frontier at the break of dawn. They have only a couple of minutes left.

“It’s hard to act as if time isn’t a barrier for me, Tenten. But I hope that after this war, after this separation, I can look at you and give you my promise,” he finally lets his eyes fall to her dark orbs. In the dark, there is nothing but blackness in her eyes.

“But you’re looking at me now, Neji,” Tenten’s lower lip quivers at the thin air that surrounds them. Their silence will break soon and War will begin. “Tell me, what is that promise?”

He faces towards her, making it apparent the distance at which they’ve always stand. No matter how close she is to him, there is always a distance he’s yet to close. Tenten bites her lower lip to stop its tremble. She is afraid of whatever will come out of his mouth. It’s as if he is withholding good news from her. Tenten’s fists tighten and her knuckles mingle with the cold air. If he truly has good news, she will ruin it all with her bad news.

“I’ll promise to live for you,” Neji takes one minor step towards her. Just one more step to go. “I’ll live for you and not any other way. I won’t live as a shinobi, instead, as your man, your husband, your only soulmate.” Neji takes one last step to secures her hands into his’. “It’s been some time that I knew this won’t work, this awkward silence you always give me. The way you’ll say my name with uncertainty, breathlessly, as if you’re unsure if you should call me.”

Tenten feels his warmth bleed onto her hands. It radiates to her skin, piercing through every muscle, every bone, and travels to spike her heart. It is good news. It is good news and her diaphragm spazzes. Her mind shakes just at the thought of it.

“And so after everything is over, after this war is over, I will make your habit disappear. I’ll make it that my name comes through your lips confidently. As if you are proud to call my name, call my being as yours, I will love you without yielding, Tenten.”

His kiss comes as a warm meal after a play out in the rain. It comes as the hot water hitting her icy skin. His kiss comes as the good news that erases the bad news she’s yet to tell him. Tenten stops responding to his kisses. She can’t return the kisses anymore. Tears cascade down her cheeks like shooting stars on a starless night. She rarely cries and Neji knew to end their intimate gestures at that moment.

He covets her for the first time in the time that he’s known her. Tenten sobs into his vest. Her hands held her mouth tightly. She hasn’t told him what she needed to say.

“We’re running out of time, Tenten,” his rhythmic pats on her back stops as the stars begin to disappear one by one. “Tell me why you called me here.”

Tenten retracts from him and she looks at the sky beginning to brighten. She wipes her tears with her sleeve and turns to him and places both her hands onto his chest. Their time is almost up. “You’re going to die, Neji. You shouldn’t give me false hopes because— I’ll never forgive you.”

Neji grimaces as her sharp words stab him. It wakes him from the purity of his mind. She is never wrong about what she sees when she does see those things. He strokes a tear from her cheek with his thumb. “Then, I’ll wait for you on the other side, Tenten.” his hand caresses her cheek for the last time. He is going to die in this war and he’ll never be able to fulfill his promise to her. “Don’t forgive me as long as you live.”

The flare sounds and a beam of smoke sprouts in the distance. Neji’s attention only draws to her. He is afraid because this will be the last time he’ll see her. He takes in the last of her features down to every curvature of her structure. He will carve this memory of her deep into his mind.

Their time has run out. Neji’s breaths finally shutters, “I love you, Tenten. When you return home, don’t be selfish. Give time to love someone when I’m gone. Stay healthy and live until life has spent you.” Neji steps away from Tenten, parting her grasp of his vest. “I will wait for you, no matter how long that may be.”

\---

Tenten’s finger traces her lips as she spaces out on the job. She can still remember the taste of his lips on that dark dawn.

In the blink of an eye, twelve years have passed by. Tenten perches on her chair until the sun goes down. The evening weather is always perfect for strolling with him. She wonders why they rarely do that when he was alive. Weather like this is also good for boat riding in the dark. The stream is calm and the moon wanes on the surface like a spotlight. Tenten wonders why she keeps having these spurs of thoughts of activities she wishes she can do with him. He is no longer here.

His last words are etched onto her skin. Tenten wears his bits of advice like the scars on her body. It never fades, the pain that comes when it is made, but marks, it slowly disappears with time if time allows it.

Tenten can truly say that she’s followed his words down to the “T”. She can recite his every word down to the nuances of the tone he used when he told her. He was in a haste when he said it.

Tenten pulls down the security gates to her shop and squats down to clip it with a lock. The dark of the night creeps behind her as the streetlights turn on one by one. In a scenery like this, Tenten imagines him walking with her hand in hand back to his place. A smile perches on her dainty lips. Even without him here, even if she can’t say his name casually, just the thought of him raises her spirit.

She stands up and heads home like all the other nights. There are only a few places in the village that Tenten doesn’t recall having any memories of him. She coughs into her inner elbow as she passes by the street where their team always walks on after returning from a mission. His scent in all of these places should have been swept by the wind but it seems as if with every passing day that he is gone, it becomes stronger.

Tenten turns the key and opens the door. This is one of the few places he’s never been near. She closes the door and switches the light on. _Your scent is clouding my home_. Tenten coughs into her sleeve again.

It was a year without him that Tenten begins to notice her nose’s sensibility. She recalls the incident clearly. On a day walking around the paths they used to take to the training fields, a gust of eerie wind suddenly breathes his indistinguishable scent into her senses. The smell of freshly crushed bamboo and the distinct aroma of flowery buds he always uses in conjunction when he washes his clothes wisps throughout the area from which she stands. Following up with the spread of his scent in the twelve years he’s gone, Tenten begins to conjure a cough.

Sakura says the cough is due to the changing seasons. She says it will come and go whenever the season cycles with the year. It’s been twelve grueling years and she still suffers from the cough.

 _I’ve learned that I’m quite selfish when it comes to love, Neji_. He tells her to learn to love someone when he’s gone but she didn’t know how to go about it. Even without him walking amongst her plane, Tenten can still feel ever so strongly about her feelings for him. _I guess that’s what it is, love knows no bounds nor realities._

She sips on a warm mug of ginseng tea as she stares at the calendar. Ever since Naruto became the Seventh Hokage, he’s changed the structure of the calendar. The sound of the television runs as background noise as Tenten set the mug onto the table. Her eyes focus on the ununiform circular loops around the date number nineteen. A satisfying smile forces her lips to curve. It will be the nineteenth tomorrow.

Tenten wakes up in the middle of the night with painful chest pain. She reaches for the nightstand but her hands return to clutch her chest instead. Her short coughs turn hoarse, almost unbearable for the ear to hear. It is 5:36 am when she develops this horrid hacking cough and it refuses to leave.

Tenten is in the middle of shooing Naruto’s blonde child away from scaring off her nonexistent customers from her shop when she feels her lungs constrict and refuse to take in any more air. She turns away from the young boy and hacks a terrifying cough into her palms. She didn’t think anything of it as it has been so normal all throughout the day until she realizes that she’s sprayed red specks of her blood all over her hands.

Boruto leans over the counter and spots the scene, “Tenten-sensei!” he screams to her. “Is that blood?”

Her coughs gave her no leeway to answer. Tenten walks away from the counter as her continuous coughs flicker tiny drops of red dots onto the floor. She quickly wipes her redden hands on her pants, thankfully she wore maroon to mask her blood.

“You’ve got to get it checked out, Tenten-sensei!” the boy presses on.

“No need,” Tenten spews as she swipes tissues into her palm to wipe her mouth. “It will end soon.”

Boruto hops over the counter, “If you don’t go to the hospital now, Tenten-sensei, I’ll bother Sarada’s mom to personally come for you.”

It is no doubt that Tenten complied. Sakura is far busier than she used to be and to have her running all the way to Tenten’s weaponry is insane. It is better to not cause any scene before she goes. And so here she was, sitting on a stool in a very secluded room: Sakura’s personal office.

“Tenten, why didn’t you tell me you’re this sick?” Sakura flips over the analyzation report and then put the clipboard down. She lifts her eyes to stare at the sickly woman.

“It’s not like you’ll be able to fix it anyway, right?” Tenten hurries to put the towel to her mouth before she coughs.

Sakura’s shoulders sag and she grimaces. “You’re right, but I would’ve been able to slow the progression, Tenten.”

Tenten shakes her head in dismay, “There is no need. It won’t be right if you do.”

“What do you mean?”

Tenten’s eyes veered on today’s date on Sakura’s calendar hanging on the wall. “I’ve dreamt of this day several times, Sakura, this specific day.” She turns to meet eyes with the concerned medical kunoichi. “There won’t be any more days to dream of after today.” A weak simper escapes her stoic face, “I even prepared myself, wearing the clothes I’ve dreamt of for today, down to the earrings, Sakura.”

It is no secret that when Tenten dreams of someone, it will always be true. When she dreams of these particular dreams, she’ll only dream of the people who will perish. Sakura’s hopeless sigh slips out of her mouth. “Where is the place that you’ll go?”

“Beside him,” Tenten says with confidence, “beside Neji.”

“Tenten-”

“I can’t be buried beside him, but my final resting place, the last place I take my breath, it’ll be beside him,” she looks out of the window. The sun is up high just like any other day. “I’ve got to hurry now, time is running out.”

Sakura immediately stands up as Tenten brushes past her. “Please let me accompany you, Tenten.”

Tenten turns to her in the middle of a hacking cough and she gives a nod. She then discards the towel wherever it lands and makes her way out of the hospital.

“Where are you going?” Sasuke halts Sakura as Tenten continues forward. It is his routine visit but his wife has deviated.

Sakura looks tenderly toward Tenten and then back to her husband, “Excuse me, honey.”

Sasuke ends up treading after his wife. The sight of unlikely ducklings following one another caught Temari’s eyes as she drags Shikamaru through the market. Shikamaru manages to halt Sasuke, “What’s going on, Sasuke?”

The man eyes the two kunoichi weaving through the crowd. “Something is not sitting well with Sakura.”

Temari glances in the two kunoichis’ directions, catching Tenten wiping her bloody hands onto her pants. “Tenten’s not doing so well either.”

Sasuke immediately continues trekking after them.

“What did you say?” Sasuke’s swift move stuns Shikamaru. He turns to his wife, “Tenten’s not doing well?”

“She just wiped blood onto her pants,” Temari tilts her head to see what else the sickly woman is going to do. Without thinking, her feet move on their own. She finds herself following their tracks as well.

“Temari-” Shikamaru calls after her. Their market trip will have to wait.

Tenten didn’t think her friends are going to mass behind her. She didn’t object and she didn’t complain. There is no need to do so because her time is almost up. With the exception of Naruto, Hinata, and Lee, everyone is here several steps behind. Tenten coughs again. She’s stained most of her pants but smears it onto the fabric anyway.

From the entrance to the place where the stone rests, Tenten sees Hinata walking out of the gate. Her eyes grow weary and she approaches the white-eyed woman. “Tenten-san,” Hinata’s little voice greets her. “Is that— blood on your face?” her tone grows concerned.

“I don’t have much time, Hinata,” Tenten gives her a pale grin and looks past the woman, “Next time when you come, please leave a white Kiku on his headstone,” she walks past the confused woman, “and if you ever visit mine, leave me a yellow one.”

Hinata’s breath hitches and she walks after Tenten only to be held back by Sakura’s hand. Hinata turns around and glances at the woman, “Sakura-san-”

“Don’t go,” Sakura warns her.

“Tenten-san just asked me to leave Kiku instead of sunflowers,” she told Sakura. “What’s going on?” Hinata meets eyes with the rest of her friends who stand behind Sakura and Sasuke.

Sakura minutely shakes her head in dismay. Her face contorts just at the thought of losing another important friend. “Tenten foresaw her own death,” she pauses, “and it’s today.” She blames herself for not recognizing the symptoms of lovesickness before it manifested itself to this state. She turns to her husband and plants her forehead onto his chest. With all of her skills, this is the one thing she can’t heal.

“Are you serious?” Temari asks. “That’s ridiculous!”

“She’s never been wrong,” Ino lowly interjects against Temari’s claim. “She is never wrong.”

Hinata swiftly spins around to see a glimpse of Tenten’s back. Her heart aches as she realizes that this will be the last time she sees her alive. “Where is Lee-san?”

“I’ll help you look,” Kiba announces. He quickly heads out of the area with Hinata.

\---

His grave is always well kept. Tenten kneels down in front of the stone and sits on her feet. She leans forward and stretches an arm to remove the sunflower from the headstone. “I’m sorry that I haven’t visited you in a while. I’m sorry I couldn’t bring your favorite blossoms today, Neji.” She catches her breath upon mentioning his name. Tenten instantly relaxes her stiff posture, “Did I say it confidently?” She smiles, “Your name comes to me so easily, Neji.”

She stares at the rigid stone and the engravings on it. “There’s so much I’ve wanted to tell you these past twelve years, Neji.” Tenten deliberately lets his name fall from her lips like an infectious rhyme. “I made a list of things we can do, things we can eat, things we can wear, places we can visit— the list goes on, Neji.”

Tenten snickers, provoking a hacking cough. She crouches into her lap with both of her hands on her mouth. Tenten gasps for air, feeling her lungs agitate. Every breath intake brings about a very scratchy and irritating feeling to her lungs. She wipes bloodier hands onto her knees.

“I’ve picked names for our kids if we ever decide to have any, Neji,” Tenten’s lips curve and she couldn’t help but smile. “But I’ll leave it at that for now.” She wipes her mouth and clutches her chest as a growing pain tightens at her heart. Tenten ceases to breathe in another breath. She takes in the eerie aches until it overwhelms her. Groans and growls escape her mouth.

Sakura steps forward upon instinct. Tenten is swimming in a pool of pain and her cries are no different from Sarada’s. This time, her husband holds her back from moving another step.

“You can’t help her, Sakura,” Sasuke eyes the kunoichi kneeling from afar. “She wouldn’t want you to interfere.”

Sakura watches as Tenten supports herself from the ground with an arm onto the grass. She cries uncontrollably.

Her sides hurt now. Tenten cradles her left ribs as she spews out blood onto the ground. She coughs and chokes on the discharge until it stops. And when it seems as if everything is over, Tenten lays onto her side as she marvels at his stone. Her eyelids begin to pull with weight but she fights to keep them open. Her chest no longer wishes to rise. “You must’ve waited long for me, Neji, I’m sorry for not coming sooner. The past twelve years have been lonely and unfulfilled without you. Now I’ll come to you.” Tenten relinquishes her meager life in front of him.

_“I said I will wait for you, no matter how long it may be, Tenten,” his voice clearly echoes in her ears._

_Tenten props herself up and her eyes follow the pair of feet beside her up to meet his gaze. “Neji,” she gleefully smiles._

_Neji extends his hand to her and Tenten’s hand rose to meet his’. She grabs his hand without a second thought and he pulls her up from the ground. “We’ve paid our dues in this lifetime, Tenten. In the next life, I will fulfill my promise to you.”_

_His short smile warms her to no extent. She grips his hand as tightly as she can, “Love ascends beyond time. I’ll walk any road as long as you’re with me, Neji.”_

_To have him beside her again fills her whole. Tenten can only see the future that they trek upon to be towards a blinding bright light. It expels all sorts of memories of her surroundings. She walks in hand with him with no regrets and no more ties to this life._

Lee pushes through his friends and arrives at Neji’s grave. His tears begin to fall like the endless waterfall he’s wept previously for Neji. Lee collapses to his knees. “I’m sorry, Tenten. I’ve neglected you.” He reaches for both of her hands and realizes how tainted in red they are. He places her hands onto her stomach and the grief defeats his composure. Lee leans down and presses his forehead onto her lifeless fingers. “Please. Please don’t be reborn to this world, to this exhausting life.”

At his words, Sakura wipes her tears before they fall. Her husband’s hand caresses her shoulder and she leans into his chest.

“Lee-san,” Hinata manages to conjure from her sobs, “they’re in a better place now.”

Lee chokes on his cries and finally lets go of Tenten’s hands, “Wherever you go, may you be happy my friends.”

 

Epilogue 

Hinata places a white chrysanthemum on her cousin’s headstone. She stands there for a while. “Tenten-san left many notes about you, Nii-san,” she can’t bring herself to smile at the thought of the kunoichi.

_“A white Kiku that is you, loyal and honest to the nation. From which it rips you right out of my reach, I gift you a white Kiku that is you.”_

“I should get going now, Tenten-san will be waiting.” Hinata walks a good mile out of the honorable cemetery and into one where commoners rest. If it was possible, if Neji had married her, she wouldn’t be resting in such a place. Hinata carefully treads around the crowded stones. Each stone is plain. The only unique thing about it is the name that is carved onto the stone, well, at least some. But for Tenten, her name is wholly a one-of-a-kind. She was a heavenly name bound to Earth.

Hinata delicately places the yellow chrysanthemum into the vase. She plucks out the drooping one from yesterday. “I ought to grow a field of yellow Kiku in remembrance of you, Tenten-san.” Sprouts of white chrysanthemums are blooming in her garden again. Yellow golden ones will look beautiful too.

_“Gift to me a golden Kiku to remind of our neglected love. A sorrow that exists with every thousand petals, gift to me a golden Kiku.”_


End file.
